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Picture of Health: Images of Medicine and Pharmacy from the William H. Helfand Collection

Hood's Sarsaparilla was claimed to cure a variety of serious problems, including eczema, cancerous tumors, catarrh, rheumatism, consumption, and dropsy. It contained about 18 percent alcohol and assorted herbs and roots such as sarsaparilla, licorice, and a drug resembling senna, which was largely responsible for its basic laxative effect. The poster does not focus on the product's indications, however, but urges its use "In the Light of its Record of Cures," a concept effectively reinforced by the model facing the light. Hood's Sarsaparilla had in fact been on the market for twenty years before this poster was published. William H. Helfand, from The Picture of Health: Images of Medicine and Pharmacy from the William H. Helfand Collection (1991), p. 30.